PICANTE: (Processes, Impacts, and Changes of ANTarctic Extreme weather)
Start date: Feb 2024
End date: Oct 2027
Principal Investigator: Dr J Jones, University of Sheffield, Geography
CPOM Co-Investigators: Professor M McMillan and Dr Amber Leeson Lancaster University, Lancaster Environment Centre
According to the IPCC Antarctica could warm by up to 5°C by 2100 and stronger, more frequent AEWEs could destabilize ice shelves and accelerating sea level rise globally. Understanding AEWEs is critical for predicting future climate impacts.
Antarctic Extreme Weather Events (AEWE) are extreme weather events that either melt ice, raising global sea levels or increase snowfall, potentially lowering sea levels. Influenced by local weather systems, large-scale weather patterns and anthropogenic climate change, they are not generally well understood by the scientific community.
PICANTE Project Goals
The PICANTE (Processes, Impacts, and Changes of ANTarctic Extreme weather) project aims to improve understanding and prediction of AEWEs and their impact on ice shelves and sea level rise by:
- Building detailed datasets of AEWEs using data from Antarctic weather stations, climate reanalysis data, and climate model simulations.
- Using AI and simulations to study how different factors contribute to AEWEs and linking weather events to local impacts on ice shelf stability.
- Simulating future climate scenarios to predict the distribution of AEWEs and their effects on ice shelves and oceans.
- Identifying how to improve climate and ice/ocean models for better projections.
- Exploring the possibility of more extreme events than currently observed.
Partner Institutions:
- University of Sheffield
- Lancaster University
- University of Oxford
- University of Lincoln
- University of Exeter
Visit the UKRI website for more information.